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Film Music / Study 12

Can viewers recall the theme music to specific characters?

Characters are often given their own theme music which filmmakers seem to assume helps the audience to react to certain characters in specific ways. Subjects should be shown a film that they have not seen before and that contains recognizable character themes.

After watching the film, the experimenters could expose viewers to ten different themes (themes for other characters in other movies as well as other characters in the same movie). The themes should be similar to and different from the original themes.

For example, if the character is a "bad guy," the themes should be of other bad guys as well as heroes. Can the subject pick out the theme for the character in question a significant percentage of the time? If not, does this mean the theme was not effective?

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